Support our Troops?

Posted on December 24, 2007
Filed Under Complaints, Cornwall, In The News, Main |

“Support our Troops“, the bumper sticker read.  It wasn’t the first time I’d heard that mantra and it certainly wouldn’t be the last.  But what does it mean?  What kind of support are we expected to provide our troops? 

Are we talking moral support?  You know, the kind of thing where we, as a country, make sure our troops know that we appreciate what they’re doing.  If so, how do I, as an individual, and how does this bumper sticker owner, show our support?  I don’t get it.  Would I be showing my support if I bought a bumper sticker?

The answer is ‘yes’.  I would be supporting the bumper sticker makers of Canada.

It’s kind of like a light-hearted debate I had online soon after Madeleine McCann went missing.  My opinion was, and remains, that Mr and Mrs McCann were wrong to leave their children unattented.  I voiced this opinion long before it was popular to do so (nowadays, a lot of the papers have turned on the McCanns and are highlighting their faux pas while still showing sadness over their loss).  

Just to be clear (as I’ve been attacked online for this misunderstanding already), I do not think that the McCanns wanted Madeleine abducted or that they made it happen.  I’m simply saying that, as parents of such young children, they should have been there and would most probably have prevented the abduction simply with their presence.

Anyway, I bought this up because I was widely criticized for this opinion and most people who commented could be quoted as saying something like:  “Instead of criticizing these poor people, let’s just get Madeleine back safely”.

I’m all for bringing her back safely - in fact, if there’s anything I can do personally, please let me know - but what a nonsense comment.  I was not simply criticizing the McCanns, I was offering a opinion which I hoped was up for debate.  I completely understand if someone has an opposing point of view (such as: the McCanns were right to leave their three children under the ages of 4 by the themselves in a holiday apartment night after night while they ate dinner with their friends), but no one actually offered me such a point of view.

All this to say that I hear and read other people’s thoughts and I’m often stumped by them.  As human being, myself included, we say things to appear to be doing, thinking or saying the right thing in the eyes of the world.  We want to seem caring and ‘in tune’ with the feelings of others and while all these things aren’t wrong, they leave a bad taste in my mouth and I sometimes wish that we could eradicate all this PC bullshit.  We deserve better than this.

But what kind of world would we live in if we didn’t feel the need to tiptoe around each other?  I have a hard time imagining it.

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